An interview with Tami Hart

Tami Hart is the mastermind behind the addictive electro-punk act, Making Friendz. It’s been a long journey (even though Tami herself is still on the young end of the age spectrum) and as you can see from our conversation below, a very interesting one. Growing up in a small town in South Carolina, surrounded by ultra-religious homophobia and few outlets for her angst, Tami funneled her energies into her music and from a very early age was able to capture the attention of one of, in my humble opinion, the best record labels to ever come out of the ‘90s, Mr. Lady.

Adding some bonus points to the coolness tip jar, Hart is also currently touring as bassist for the JD Samson fronted group, MEN. We wanted to know, just how did this all come together and where is it going from here?

AfterEllen.com: I know you just got back from Coachella — what was that like?

Tami Hart: It was sort of like Boogie Nights without the drugs or pornography. [Laughs] It was very surreal. It was kind of like too amazing, you know?

AE: Really? Even without the drugs?

TH: Preferably without that. There was a lot of coconut water.

AE: Oh, yeah they actually had that at Lollapalooza this year. That stuff is awesome.

TH: Yeah I’m kind of hooked now; so it was a great marketing strategy. [Laughs]

AE: Well maybe you can become the face of coconut water.

TH: One can only hope.

AE: You have to write a song specifically for it and hope that it catches on. Have you played a bunch of festivals before? You were there playing with MEN, right?

TH: Yes, I’ve been touring as a member of MEN playing bass and guitar. So this was my first experience on a larger scale.

AE: Oh, wow, that’s huge!

TH: It was a little sensory overload at times.

AE: Yeah, I bet. Were you able to enjoy some of the other music?

TH: A lot, actually. Festivals are kind of like the coolest thing ever because all the bands that I wanted to see were there and it would have taken me a year to see them all but I was able to watch them all in a couple of days. It was really amazing. You walk by one stage and it’s, “Oh, The Black Keys are playing” then you walk by another stage and it’s, “Oh, The Kills are playing” and it was all the bands I really like so it was really cool. I saw Robyn.

AE: Oh my God, she’s amazing!

TH: Yes, my mind is still dealing with the magic of Robyn. I have no idea why people are so obsessed with Lady Gaga and not Robyn.

AE: No kidding.

TH: She is amazing and she’s having fun and everyone was just losing it and loving it so much. One of the things that just made me really happy was looking around and seeing how much everyone was loving the music.

AE: Yeah and as a musician that must be the best feeling in the world.

TH: It was really, really cool. I was watching Cut Copy, who put on a really amazing live show, and I looked over and there was this 8-year-old kid who was singing all the words and was dancing next to his dad, who was dancing too, and that made my biological clock tick a little bit. [Laughs] It was just really cool to see.